Management Accounting Change and Stability - Resistance and Barriers to Change

Management accounting change has been shown not to be an easy and straightforward undertaking and attempts to change management accounting systems often give rise to various types of resistance. This thesis explores management accounting change (MAC) as a process and focuses on resistance and barriers to MAC. The empirical research has been conducted as a qualitative single case study exploring management accounting change taking place between 2016 and 2019 in a mid-size Finland based publicly traded company. In the timeframe of the study, the target company has gone through comprehensive structural and accounting changes that resulted in comprehensive changes to lines of accountability, the management accounting system and performance measures. The thesis has adopted Kasurinen (2002) change model as its primary theoretical framework as the model provides a holistic and comprehensive way to analyze MAC. In addition, the thesis is drawing from wide range of qualitative MAC literature revealing prior findings on the phenomenon as well as resistance and barriers to MAC. The research findings support the prior literature findings of MAC as a process which has been variously affected and frustrated by internal dynamics of the organization. Moreover, the study contributes to the MAC literature and to the Kasurinen (2002) model by connecting sources of resistance highlighted by the literature to the barriers in the model. Finally, the main contribution of the thesis to MAC literature is the suggested inclusion of leaders and momentum for stability into the Kasurinen (2002) model as this better represents the countering forces of change and stability in MAC